Earthquake Can’t Silence the Voices of Haitian Women

An Update By Advisor Maria Suárez Toro, FIRE

After Lise Marie Dejean, a Haitian activist from the women¹s organization SOFA, (Haitian Women’s Solidarity) described all the things that collapsed, all the people, as well as the historical memory now buried under the debris of the National Library and the Women¹s Center a journalist asked, “And then, what is left standing?” Lise Marie looked the journalist in the eyes, then looked up and said: “The strength of the survivors.”

The most serious loss has been that of their roots, as Haiti’s historical memory was preserved in the National Library; the women’s movement’s memory was stored in the office of ENFOFAM, the first women’s organization in the country. Fortunately, some of those memories survive in the form of radio, TV, Internet files and books produced by Latin American and Caribbean women journalists, who will now give it back to the Haitian women¹s movement for posterity.

Haitian women also said that with the loss of three of their leaders, their oral history now lives in the survivors. We need to interview them and get resources to distribute those interviews, first in Creole, then translate them into other languages. Even though they feel devastated by all the losses, Haitian women have not given up; held up both by the solidarity of so many and by their own ancestral strength. On March 8th, when International Women¹s Day is celebrated worldwide, we will honor three Haitian feminist leaders: Myriam Merlet, Anne Marie Coriolan and Magalie Marcelin. It is important to have your support for a massive media campaign. Haitian women have decided to mourn them in this way, to let them go by ensuring they will remain forever in us all.

The Feminist International Radio (FIRE) and the Communication Centre of the Solidarity Camp have received support from INDUTEL, which allocates radio frequencies and the technical platform to set up a shortwave radio station. We are now broadcasting live from Haiti!

The broadcasts will contribute to open communication channels for women and their communities, so their voices will be heard - expressing their suffering, survival and strength; provide access to information about the minimal services that are provided and communities can coordinate among themselves. During a crisis, radio can be particularly therapeutic in its role of listening to people. It can also mobilize solidarity when people outside Haiti listens to the direct voices of those affected and the voices of the protagonists. Internet radio is frequently the only media working, serving as a bridge with the broader media and allowing for initiatives being implemented to be disseminated in the region and around the world.

Other participants in the Communications Center are blogs and electronic networks organized by women in the region, such as The Continental Media Alliance, SEM/LAC, CIMAC, Cotidiano Mujer, women from the Association of Community Radios AMARC.

The Center will provide communication infrastructure and support services to journalists and communicators, so they can cover the news and information and can organize visits to Port-au-Prince.

Communication will enable us to provide critical information that is sensitive to the context and where Haitian people, particularly women, play a leading role. It will provide a mobile, low power radio station, powered with solar energy, which can operate within the chaos to support community building.

We are happy to connect using this media, which is a way to afford a voice and information to those who have not been listened to yet.

You can listen to the radio broadcast online at http://www.radiofeminista.net

Haiti: Resources Update

AMARC: Community Radio Broadcasters’ Update on Haiti

UNHCR update

Reuters: Haitian Women Lose Out in Post-Quake ‘Survival of the Strongest’

Al Jazeera: US ‘to resume’ Haiti airlifts